US Supreme Court Deadlocks on DAPA & DACA+, Community Vows to Keep Fighting

June 23, 2016

MILWAUKEE – Today, the US Supreme Court deadlocked in a 4-4 split on President Obama’s executive actions on immigration, leaving in place a lower court ruling blocking the measures. The programs, known as Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents (DAPA) and expanded Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), would have provided protection from deportation and 3-year work permits to some 5 million undocumented parents of US Citizens and Lawful Permanent Residents, as well as undocumented people who came to the US before the age of 16. The decision does not affect the original DACA program, created in 2012.

President Obama had announced the actions in November 2014 following a campaign of protest and civil disobedience led by undocumented immigrants. Shortly afterward 26 Republican Governors and Attorneys General, including Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, filed suit to block the program.

“This means that all that is unjust about my situation will continue,” said Voces member Karla Cano, 21, a senior at Mount Mary University and mother of a 2-year-old son. Karla would have qualified for expanded DACA. “I am in college so I can have a career helping others, but I cannot start a career like that without work authorization. We just want to help this country and support our families like anyone else. I am not giving up on the struggle. We need more people to get involved in the upcoming elections because this decision shows the importance of both the presidential and US congressional elections and whom the next President will nominate to the U.S. Supreme Court.”

“This is very sad for me,” said José Flores, a factory worker and father of 4 who is the President of Voces de la Frontera. “I have been waiting and fighting for a reform like DAPA for years, but we are not giving up. I refuse to be afraid, to shrink back into the shadows. Our community has to keep fighting. We have to make sure that pro-immigrant candidates win in November so that we can move immigration reform through the US Congress. We have to keep fighting. The Latino vote in Wisconsin will be decisive and we will remember in November, who stood with us and who stood against our families.”